It's not all heavy weights and bulging muscles...
Strength Training is the best thing you can do for your overall health. If you have limited time for exercise you opt for Strength Training. Let's explore why.
First we'll cover what strength training is.
Strength Training is the use of weight or force during exercise. The only goal of which is to make you stronger.
Now we've defined it, lets explore what that means for you.
We are champions of minimal effective dose e.g. doing the least possible to get the result you want. Many of our clients (40+) will train 1 - 2 times a week, which is plenty. That's all it needs to be because their workouts are well thought out and personalised to them.
That being said, someone in their mid 80's (we also have clients at this age) might be better suited to one session a week, of considerable less intensity. This is because they won't recover as fast as a younger person. Recovery is the limited factor. If you recover well, only then do you consider adding more sessions.
Now to exercise choice. Where a 20-something may throw some weight on a bar and do 15 squats, that might not be the right choice for you (it might not be right for them either!). If you have dodgy knees, controlled reps of sitting down on a bench, then getting back up could be exactly what the doctor ordered. The key is to build upon the level of strength and stability you have now. If your slowing increasing this across many sessions, you're doing exactly what you need to in order to get stronger. It's that simple.
Remember when we spoke about recovery? This is why we can't over-do it with the weights. If you go too heavy out the gates it will take you forever to recover. You'll be sore for days... weeks even! That's not going to leave a good impression on you and you're not going to be as keen to do it all again next time.
In conclusion, strength training can be many things for many people. The key is to identify what level you're at, and work in that range. Your starting point does not define how fit, healthy or athletic you will be. It's just a starting point. Embrace that point and get a plan in place to build upon it slowly. If you managed to get up from the bench 8 times without pain last week, aim for 9 or 10 times pain free this week. Maybe in a week or two you can try add some weight. And so the process continues.
So get out there, challenge yourself appropriately and share you victories with us on social media, we'd love to hear from you.
